White Facade
by RuckedRampager
Summary: Rainbow's Siege division is trying to pick up the pieces after the terrorist attack on Bartlett University. Now they must pool their resources in to try and understand just who exactly these "white masks" are. This will test Rainbow's newest division in ways they all never would have thought of, pushing them to their limits.


0700

October 3rd, 2017

Undisclosed Location

This was not a good day to say the least. Just yesterday the worst terrorist attack to any of the NATO countries took place in the United States at one of the most prestigious schools in the world, Bartlett University. Marching down a bleak hallway, Mike Baker shook his head as thoughts raced through his mind about what went wrong the day before. The intel was off, causality rates were high on Rainbows side, somehow these guys flew under the radar with mass amounts of chemical weapons, overall sloppy coordination, and the overwhelming thought of who the hell were these men that wore white masks flooded his thoughts.

As he passed by dull brown wood doors that carried on for what seemed like an eternity, he saw the door he meant to stop by, an unmarked steel door, the only one of its kind. He grasped the handle and took a deep breath. He was not looking forward to the conversation with her. The man wasn't fearful of the coming discussion, his years of combat experience had forced fear out of him; however, to say he wasn't anxious would be a wrong assumption. He had a healthy, respectful understanding of the coldness that came from this woman. With a twist and a push, the door creaked open into a sullen, simply furnished room with a single light hanging from the ceiling. A chair sat in front of a large oak desk, filing cabinets behind it held classified information that may never see the light of day again. The only other person in the room was a dark skinned woman wearing a red executive type suit.

"Good morning ma'am," Baker croaked out as he snapped to attention.

"Right on time Baker. At ease," She responded coldly. Her eyes were deep and foreboding; an abysmal plain that let no light that entered it escape. "Please, have a seat," she motioned to the chair in front of her desk. The simple leather bound chair matched the desk it sat in front of.

He entered parade rest before taking his seat. "You said this was of the utmost importance?"

"Correct," she pulled a black briefcase out from behind her desk, unlocking it and pulling from it several unmarked file folders with photos clipped to the front of them. He couldn't directly see the pictures well but he saw what looked like various soldiers from many different parts of the world. A pit opened up in his stomach as he realized what these were.

"These are our Rainbow operatives we've had embedded in countries doing intel work."

Baker took the folders and inspected the photos. Some were men and women in identifiable uniforms, others were hard to make out. Some looked downright scary.

"These are the …?"

"Polish GROM, Chinese SDU, Jaeger Corps, GIGR, and The Unit, to name a few. Operators we've added in the months leading up to the attack and we're now activating globally to help find out who did this."

"The Unit? Since when did we get one of those yanks?"

"That doesn't matter. These ops are stationed around the world right now. We've got some in Morocco, Australia, Africa, Syria, the continental US, China, and all across Europe, all working every day and night to find out what they can about these sons of bitches."

The counterattack by Rainbow at Bartlett had gone awry when Rainbow's intelligence proved to be off and the attack was much earlier and much more violent than anticipated. Rainbow only had a handful of operators from the Siege division in the United States at the time and had to pull additional assets from the Vegas division as backup. That backfired however as all of the Vegas operators had no knowledge of the situation and were not used to working while wearing chemical hazmat suits. Several KIA later, Siege was left with their pants down looking like they just screwed up the biggest terrorist attack on US soil since September 11th.

Baker flipped through the files, reading up on the few he remembered seeing months ago.

"How many will we see come through Hereford?"

"Depends on their mission. Some may be here indefinitely, others may breeze through when need be. Some, we might have to go find."

"Like her?" Baker held up the file of the Jaeger Corps Operative, NØkk, that was almost entirely blacked out.

"We can discuss her some other time. For now I want to alert you that several permanent operators are coming here in the next week. Three Americans. A Ranger, Pararescueman, and Delta Operator."

Baker groaned at her words. The last thing he wanted was more bloody yanks on Hereford. He understood what Rainbow stood for, but that didn't mean he liked working with the old colonists, even if one was from The Unit.

"Is there a problem?"

Baker searched for a proper way to tell his discontent with this news, "Personally, I just find yanks annoying is all ma'am. What can we expect from these new recruits?"

"They're all battle hardened as every new recruit we get," she said, pulling three file folders from her briefcase, "some more than others," handing the folders to Baker, she closed her briefcase and sat back in her chair, seeming to relax. Something he never thought she could do.

Looking down at the folders, he inspected the pictures paper clipped to them. One was a man in his early thirties, wearing American Multicam and in the middle of battle it seemed. That must be the Ranger. Dust and debris everywhere, even a gunshot wound on his right arm, yet he sat there, weapon drawn, sticking his tongue out at the camera and flashing a peace sign. Definitely the Ranger. Pure idiocy as always from them, even in the heat of battle. The second was a man in just jeans and a simple t-shirt with a vest on over everything fast roping from a helicopter with a full pack on. Obviously the PJ. Nothing too crazy about him. The last one was the most outstanding to Baker. A man dressed in all black from head to toe. Black hat, black mask, black vest, black shirt, black gloves, black everything. All you could see of him were his eyes. These eyes pierced through Baker, something very few men could do, one of them being Erik Thorn. He had not seen eyes like this in a very long time, and they made his blood run cold. This was a man who sent many to their graves, a man who was death incarnate, a man who knew his job well, a man who you do not fuck with. This, was a killer. This was someone who was in The Unit for far too long.

"Their folders contain manifests of their weapons, those should be here in the next few days, as well as their gadgets. Don't be alarmed by one with biohazard written on it." Baker's eyes shot up to meet hers. "Just don't drop the case or everyone around you will go on a real bad trip for a few hours."

"What the hell are we getting ourselves into with these yanks?"

His voice was stern, yet shaky. After seeing the living version of the Grim Reaper and hearing the addition of an operator who has a biohazardous weapon right after a chemical attack just took place didn't rub him right.

"Calm down Baker, we've reviewed their files extensively. They will be a good fit."

He took a deep breath and thumbed through the file folders again. "Whatever you say ma'am."

"Glad we could come to agreement," she motioned towards the door. "You're dismissed."

Baker left and headed straight to a few doors down where the gear inventories would be taken place and handled. Opening the door he was greeted by their top tech and inventory specialist, Mark Chandar. When in the office Mark dressed in business casual with a white collared shirt, sleeves rolled up, and black slacks, a stark contrast to his blue SAS BDU's he so hated to wear.

"Morning sir," Mark said rather dry, as per his usual method of speech.

"Morning Chandar," Baker set the folders down in front of him. "We've got three new operators coming in in a week. I need you to-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I got it." Mark thumbed through the folders and pulled out what he needed to start inventories. "How are you holding up sir? Did she ream you a new one?"

Jokes, something not normal from Mark. Guess he was in a good mood this morning.

"No, but I don't think I could handle one if she did. After all, her eyes are almost cold enough to stop you dead."

Mark snorted, the most sound he makes when he finds something funny. His eyes suddenly grew wide as he turned to the last paper. "Sir, why is biohaz-"

"Just handle it nicely when it gets here. Six said it's not deadly it'll just send you on a fun trip for a few hours."

Mark tapped the papers to organize them, exhaling loudly in disbelief. "My college days are over, I don't want to go on anymore trips."

"Get back to work Chandar! And stop with this joking nonsense, it's not like you."

Baker grabbed the files and marched out the door to the room across the hall. Most others would think that Mark's behavior was normally rude, but this was hardly the case. Sure he was the youngest operative in Rainbow but that wasn't the reason the man was short with everyone. That was just his nature, and Baker knew normally not to think anything of it. But this joking and wise cracking was unlike him. It was more American than anything. Perhaps he had been spending too much time around Miles.

The room across from Mark was where Rainbow's intelligence and logistical personnel were located. Along with the people who worked behind the scenes to get intelligence, some of their operators worked in this office as well. As Baker entered the room he was greeted by one of their best intelligence operators, Meghan Castellano. The blonde loves working in the field just as much as she loves working behind a desk. Both give her a sense of accomplishment.

"Well good morning sir, I'm shocked to see you up before noon," the grin across her face showed her more playful side when working in non-combat environments. She respected Baker but gave him hell for being the oldest member of the team any chance she could. Her eyes spotted the folders in his hands. "Ooh is that some new intel for me?"

"Oy, knock it off Castellano," he quickly remarked as he walked by her desk, eliciting a groan from Meghan. Walking to a small office at the back of the room, Baker entered without knocking.

"Estrada, we're -," he stopped mid sentence when he saw Jack Estrada with a card tower on his desk.

"Oh, hello sir." Jack smiled sheepishly and looked at his creation. "I did this in about 15 minutes."

Baker paused, staring at the sheepish man before continuing "Uh, yeah alright." Straightening up the folders, Baker set them down on Jack's desk. "We're bringing in new Ops. I need you to figure out their rooms as well as possible close allies within our group here."

Clearing his throat, Jack looked through the folders slowly. "Okay, that should take just a little over a week to get everything-" but Baker stopped him mid sentence.

"They're coming in less than a week."

Jack's eyes widened from the shock of how close that was going to be. Drumming his fingers on the desk, he thought deeply for several moments.

"I know it throws a bloody wrench in our system. Wonderful isn't it?" Baker laughed as he went to step out. "I'll leave you to figuring it out Estrada."

As he went to pass Meghan's desk she stopped him.

"We're getting more new guys? Are they going to be here or all over the place?"

"They're staying here permanently. Estrada is just going to figure out everywhere of how they'll fit."

Meghan nodded, slowly twirling in her chair. At first glance she seemed cheery and silly, but looking deeper you could see her eyes were sunken in from lack of sleep, and sheer stress on her from everything that's happened in the last few days. She's been trying to get every other operator around the world in contact with anyone they think might know someone involved in this group. Colin, Erik, El Maktoub, Ela, and Ryad were some she has been almost non-stop communicating with. The closest she's got to anything is that they aren't tied to anyone globally it seems. They're barely tied in the US, which shocks both her and Colin.

"Do you know if Colin has heard anything about these bastards?" Baker interrupted her thoughts.

Taking a deep breath in, she closes her eyes and pinches at the bridge of her nose.

"Nothing," she whispers almost inaudibly.

"What?"

"Nothing! There's fucking nothing! There is absolutely nothing about them anywhere in the world and it's driving me fucking insane!" She snapped at him forcefully. The lack of sleep was starting to get to her. Slamming her elbows on her desk, she threw her face into her hands out of anger. Baker rested a hand on her shoulder but she pushed it away. The face he saw when he came in was just a façade, this is really who she was right now, stretched way too thin between way too much.

"Go get some rest. I know you've been up for 36 hours, you need sleep."

Meghan looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes.

"My intel was off. My intel has never been so off it's cost the lives of so many people. The lives of so many innocent people. I can't sleep without thinking about them Baker."

He could see in her eyes everything she said and more. He's been on her end, not exactly the same situation, but staying up this long to try to find some information on the people who took lives that he could have prevented from getting taken. He knows it's hard.

"Just try to get some rest please. For me?" His voice was soothing and calm, like a father speaking to a young child who wouldn't go to bed. Meghan nodded and left the office. Baker knew this was going to be hard.

* * *

Wow what a long ass break between when this started and now when I'm updating chapter 1. Life has been hell and it's finally easing up. I'm nearly done with Chapter 2 but since so much has changed with Rainbow Six Siege since I wrote this, I had to update this to better fit the current operator listing. Chapter 2 should be up soon!


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